Gage Mestas spun another six quality innings on the pitcher’s mound, and the Durango High School baseball team picked up a 9-2 win at Grand Junction to split the season series against its 5A/4A Southwestern League foe.
A day after a tough 9-5 loss, the Demons bounced back Saturday to improve to 8-11 overall and 2-4 in league play with next weekend’s series at Grand Junction Central still to play as well as a game Tuesday at Bayfield and a season finale at home May 13 against Bayfield.
On Saturday, the Demons scored twice in the first inning and once more in the second inning to take a solid 3-0 lead. The Tigers (13-8, 3-3 SWL) got on the scoreboard with one run in the fourth, but the Demons put the game away in the fifth inning with a big six-run frame.
The Demons did all of their work Saturday with 10 singles and four walks and were helped by a pair of Tiger errors.
Mestas was 2-for-3 with two runs batted in and two runs scored. Dawson Marcum was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run, while Niko Mestas was 1-for-3 with two RBIs and a run. Also with RBIs for Durango were Elias Fiddler, Fynn Hyson and Jordan Stanley.
Gage Mestas allowed four hits and walked five and struck out four. The two Grand Junction runs he allowed were unearned. Fiddler closed the game on the mound and worked around a walk to retire the Tigers in the seventh inning.
No Grand Junction player had more than one hit, and Levi Prall led the team, as he went 1-for-2 with a double, two walks and two runs scored. Blaine Butler was the losing pitcher in four innings of work. he allowed five hits and walked two and struck out two. he allowed two earned runs. Christian Hafey pitched an inning and allowed six runs, none earned, on five hits and two walks while he struck out two. Brock Edgar pitched an inning and allowed one hit and struck out one.
Fruita Monument leads the league at 10-8 overall and 5-1 in league play. Montrose is two games back in the loss column at 5-3 with a stout 17-5 record overall. Grand Junction Central is last at 9-12 overall and 1-5 in league.
The Durango High School boys lacrosse team could not do enough to control its playoff hopes, as the Demons lost to Montrose 10-8 on Saturday, the final day of the regular season, with a potential playoff bid on the line.
Durango (6-8, 2-8 5A/4A Mountain League) came into Saturday’s game holding the last playoff spot at No. 16, according to CHSAANow.com’s RPI poll, which determines the playoff seeding. Durango took a tumble brief tumble to No. 17 by Saturday night, but dropped to No. 22 on Sunday with a .450 RPI, while Ponderosa moved up to the final spot with a .492. The full Class 4A state tournament field will be announced on Monday.
On Saturday, it was a tight first quarter after Corbin Randle scored both goals for the Demons and the teams were tied at two. Both sides scored twice in the second quarter and it was tied 4-4 at halftime.
“I told them that they still hadn’t played their best lacrosse yet, and there was still a half to go,” said DHS head coach John Robinette. “We were there, and yeah, we were sloppy but I thought we easily could have re-grouped and gotten it together. We knew what the stakes were, Montrose just came out and played like it was their Super Bowl.”
In the second half, Montrose (4-11, 1-9 ML) outscored the Demons 4-0 in the third quarter and would lead by as many as five, at 9-4, early in the fourth quarter.
Cullen Robinette would not be denied in his final regular-season game, as he was shutout in the first half, but exploded for three goals in the fourth quarter and helped bring it within a two-goal game at 8-6 with under four minutes remaining. Montrose would put it away late, as the Indians scored twice to score its first win over Durango in program history.
“Give credit to Montrose, they came out inspired and had never beaten us and you could tell from the opening faceoff how much it meant to them,” Robinette said. “We wanted it, too, but at the end of the day, it came back to a numbers game. We didn’t have enough gas in the tank, Sam Rodgers played great against Aspen last night on defense, but was hurt today, and we just committed a few too many mistakes for us to really get back into the game. I told the kids how proud of the way they battled this season, and we want to get back to the playoffs again next year.”
Durango will lose four of its most prolific players in program history, including Cullen Robinette, the all-time leader in points, Corbin Randle, goalie Dylan Gaver and defenseman Andrew Coleman.
“We made the most of it out there, but we just came up a bit short in the end,” Robinette said.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
